Liminal periods in the routes to routinization of video conversations in municipal practice

Public digitization is often premised on a linear understanding of progress in how digital technologies will change practices, organizations and services. However, this linear conceptualization is contrasted by practical experience, where introduction of digital technologies entails periods of crisis and transformations.We propose to use the theoretical framework of Victor Turner’s Rites de Passage to explore the transformatory passages through which technologies and projects must pass in the attempt to change status from project to standard operation. The concept of liminality may prove fruitful in the investigation of the uncertainties that often characterize projects, which stand outside the formal hierarchical, organizational structure and daily work; the unknown future of the technology itself, the status of the user and its role in organizational structures.Empirically, the argument is based on a research project regarding use of technology to support communication between children in foster- and institutionalized care and their caseworker. Through three examples, we explore the different way in which technology is used or abandoned, as part of the everyday practices of caseworkers, and unfold how these practices are intertwined with larger societal structures and municipal strategies.